Chelsie-Helsinki Finland June 13-December 14

Monday, December 29, 2014

She is coming home!!!!

December 29, 2014

Happy New Year!!! I can't believe that this week has come. 18 months has gone by so quickly and I have learned so much. I remember having an interview with my District President in the MTC and he asked me what i hoped to see for my mission. I told him i wanted to help at least 1 person, a mom, to find the gospel so that she could find the joy and peace we have and teach it to her children. He was a quiet man, spoke very softly and he promised that I would have that opportunity. I looked forward to it and were times where I wondered if it would happen. But during that time I also found many other reasons the Lord wanted me to serve a mission. I always hoped, but almost forgot about that interview and promise until this week, as we were preparing for the baptism. We have been teaching her for 2 months, but it finally hit me that THIS is a fulfillment to that promise. That and many others. Brother Alakoski (family we skyped with) also pointed out to me that I am a future mother. That the lessons I have learned here I will teach to my own children. The Lord fulfills His promises. He fulfilled them in the Bible, in the Book of Mormon, and He is constant. He fulfills His promises to us today. The gospel is a guide to a joyful life. Jesus Christ taught while He was visiting the Nephites "Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do; " Chirst set a perfect example for us. He also established His church. We need the order and authority provided by that organization. Moroni as he was finishing up his record decided to write more than he had originally planned. Those things he added pertain to authority and organization in the church. That's what he decided to talk about. Authority. A loving God has restored that authority. Because of that authority we can receive a remission of sins. we can receive the gift of the holy ghost. we can be sealed as families for eternity. we can return to live with our heavenly father. we can have peace and joy in this life, and for eternity.

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a full time missionary. It is bitter sweet. I love you all. Thank you for your support and for helping me to be focused. Thank you for your examples and faithfulness to the gospel. We have been abundantly blessed. I see the Lord's hand in my life daily. I love my Savior. Thank you for all that you do. See you on Thursday!

I'm so grateful for this time of year to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the World. Christ has been at the center of Heavenly Father's plan from it's foundation. Christ volunteered to be our Savior, that by Him we might be saved. That by Him we can act as agents to repent and overcome our imperfections. By Him we can have peace and forgiveness and joy. Without Him there would be no way to overcome physical or spiritual death and we would have no hope. But He is. He lives and guides us today through Prophets and apostles. Living His gospel and receiving ordinances by His authority brings peace, assurance, hope, joy, forgiveness, strength, and the list goes on. The phrase "The Book of Mormon is true" is familiar, but what does that mean? What does it mean that "the Book of Mormon is true"? And are we willing to act on it? Are we willing to share it? putting aside our doubts and inadequacies and fear and pride. God is our loving Heavenly Father. I love Him. I trust in Him. I am so grateful for the gospel. I am grateful for His church. I am grateful for my Savior. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you for your examples and love of the gospel. I will talk to you on Thursday!

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Sister Watson and some of the sisters at the temple a couple weeks ago

Before﻿

After

It's been really dark when we get up to run until Saturday when we went out and it was so bright!

It's amazing the difference the snow makes

Me and Bertha!!!

December 15, 2014We had our ward Christmas party last week. It was a lot of fun and I love to see how people in the church are willing to give of their time and talents. It's amazing the activities we pull together with relatively little effort and resources. People are great. I'm so grateful for the members here. One member we visited, who is very busy with school and family and work, took the time to dig out some Christmas decorations from her garage to make sure we had some decorations in our apartment. So many instances of just great people.

Looks like you had a fun weekend with Brian and Annie! fun to see the picture of all. Did Trasie dye her hair? looks cute. cute house and decorations. Looks like a nice home

I'm so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have been sharing with people the Christmas message that a loving Heavenly Father has given us His only Begotten son. That through Him we have hope for eternal life. Have you seen the He is the Gift video? It is a great way to share with others the spirit of Christmas. Without Christ we would have no hope. We would be lost and have to way to be with those we love forever. But we do have a Savior. and He leads us today through a prophet.

I hope you have a great last week of school! Love you all!

Rakkaudella, Sisar Heggie

ps-i have to tell you. it snowed. it was cold. and i took Birtha out with me. i told a lady we visited the story of buying the coat and that i swore i would never wear it...she asked why not!! she thinks it's great. annnnd, it's really not that bad :)

I had a lot of break through moments this week. One of them was this: The restoration could have happened with or without the Book of Mormon. Priesthood power could have been restored, revelation to restore lost truths could have happened and a prophet could have still been called without the Book of Mormon, but it wasn't because all of US needed evidence to pray about in order to receive a spiritual confirmation of all of the above. It sounds like a "duh" comment, but it hit me hard. The Book of Mormon really is a gift to us all from a loving God. If we study it the way He wants us to we will continue to have the spiritual strength we need to be faithful in this crazy world. I love it.

We had a fun week. We had training with President Watson last week for a couple of days and were able to go to the temple afterwards. It is such a blessing to have a temple here. I love the temple. There is a peace there that you can't feel anywhere else. It's amazing to hear the members speak about when President Hinckley was here to dedicate the temple. One lady received a blessing from one of the apostles while they were there and explained that as he put his hands on her head, she felt as if they were the Savior's hands. I thought about that. The priesthood is the power of God. Those who hold this power truly are only vessels of that power. And God, because He loves us, has restored His power to the earth so we can be blessed by it. Every priesthood blessing is as if it were the Savior's hands. What a miracle and blessing we have.

Dad it was great to hear about your missionary moment. It is wonderful that you are aware of the other people. You have always been good about noticing new or visiting people at church and talking with them. It is great to be able to simply explain the profound meaning of things like sacrament. It is simple things like that that I have always grown up knowing, but maybe not understanding and being able to teach that to other people is a gift. You have a great opportunity as Young Men's president! You will have a lasting influence on them. oh and it's about time that you got new sheep stomachs!

The plan for when I get back sounds great. Is Tras already on Christmas break? wow that seems early! Sounds like you have a fun trip planned out. quick but fun. So are you still in the same office as you were before or have you changed as well?

I love you all. Have you seen the " He is the Gift" video the church put out? Great to share with friends. Have a great week!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

December 1, 2014

I am very impressed! My companion kept calling me scrooge when I wouldn't
let us listen to Christmas music until today, but I am now enjoying the
Christmas music! The tree looks really nice!! Very different than previous
years, but I guess that will have to be part of the trade when all of us are
out of the house!

I have not heard anything about our travel plans, but yes that is what I
handed in was that I will fly into Las Vegas. The previous group of
missionaries sounded like they didn't get their plans until a few days before. President
just said to plan on being home around 7:00pm on January 1st.

Yeah dad we use the metric system. If I remember correctly, -16 Fahrenheit
is pretty cold!!! It has still been pretty warm here, around -2 or -3 today.

The talks and Sunday school lesson sound like they went well. We had the
primary program this week which was a lot of fun. It was cool to see the
parents of part member families there to support their children. Sometimes I
think the best way to their hearts is through their children so it's cool that
all over the world primary put on a program teaching the most plain and
precious parts of the gospel. I love the primary songs, they are so
powerful.

Sounds like you all had a great thanksgiving! I learned that they now make
meatballs out of fish. That makes this the 6th time we have had fish this
month. I think that is a record :) it's like a fish stick, in a ball, but
different. I would stick with mashed potatoes and turkey. They don't celebrate
thanksgiving here, but we did have a dinner appointment that night so we called
it our thanksgiving. I love the members. They have such good hearts.

Can’t believe its December already. This last month has gone by fast. Exciting
to hear that Brian and Annie got moved. Hopefully his first day at work goes
well.

This week I noticed a lot about pondering. The ability to ponder is a gift,
and a gift we should take advantage of. Many great prophets have gained greater
knowledge and guidance while they were pondering. I’ve been reading in Helaman
and the Lord guided Nephi as he was pondering Hel 10:4. I think it would do us
good to take time to ponder the things we study every day! and then share them!
Share your testimony of the things you do know. Hel 7:29. They are facts. Plain
and simple. God lives. Jesus Christ is our Savior. Without Him we would have no
hope. Through Him we can have peace and joy and live with our families forever.
His church has been restored. I love you all!

November 24, 2014Happy thanksgiving!! I think this is the first ward I have served where there isn't at least one person is married to an American, so enjoy some pumpkin pie and homemade rolls for me!

this week we were helping at the house with the family renovating. They have 3 little ones and when we got there they were tired and hungry. After working for a bit we came back for a message and it was hilarious to see the 180 difference that some good food made! They were happy and talkative and playing with us. I love getting to know new people. So many good people all over the world.

We were teaching an object lesson this week using the "egg in a bottle" experiment that i thought i finally had figured out. well the lesson is supposed to end in the egg fitting in the bottle representing us being in God's presence. As the object lesson went, the eggs ended up getting destroyed and not fitting into the bottle so our object lesson wasn't as effective as hoped. but we learned some good things anyway and had a good laugh as they were excited that "Yes! half of me gets to be in God's presence!" well.....we're hoping for something more in real life! it's always good to laugh though.

As we were teaching one of our friends she asked if we have actually received and answer that this is God's church. It was interesting because my companion and i were just talking about it the night before how members in other churches don't exactly follow something they don't believe to be good, but once you receive more light, or in other words-- receive an answer that the Book of Mormon is true and that God speaks to us today through a living prophet that leads Christ's restored church--you don't go back to less light. But it's light available to anyone who asks. I confidently replied that yes, I know that this is God's church. There are eternal consequences/blessings on the line here and that's why it can be incredibly frustrating to see people reject it. But also so sweet to see people experience the peace and joy from living by the principles that Christ teaches.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

November 17, 2014

. . It's been surprisingly warm here, 1-2 degrees
and the sun has even been shining a bit :) My sense of style has changed or
something because Bertha isn't looking so bad. It hasn't been cold enough to
wear it yet, but it probably will soon. I'll send a picture when the day comes
:)

My taste buds have even changed. I,
of my own free will, made pancakes this week and enjoyed them. I also cooked
with mushrooms and ate a sweet potato and loved it. I was telling my companion
how they were all things I used to hate. She is learning also to like fish :) .
. . . . .

. . . .

Keep up the good work with seminary.
countless stories i hear, even here, about how seminary was a turning point.

We had a zone conference this week
with the area president and he talked about different ways to make our
missionary work more effective. It was really good and he taught us a few
things about contacting and teaching and finding. I was studying PMG this
morning about "missionary work" in the covenants part and am still
wondering how I missed so much of how missionary work is part of the covenants
we make with Heavenly Father! As I read in the Book of Mormon I am always
wondering when they added in all that stuff about missionary work, or how I
missed it the first few times! We have a simple and powerful message to share
through our example and testimony we bear. Alma is talking to his son in Alma 39:15-16
about this responsibility. Playing basketball and boating and volleyball and
being with friend and eating good food is all fun but doesn't compare to the
joy that I feel when I am teaching someone about our Savior Jesus Christ.

We had FHE with one of our friends
this week and it was so much fun. She said when she told her son that we were
coming over that he was really excited. She said that he has met nice people
before but was never that excited to have people over. She pointed out that he
must feel the spirit around us. Such an awesome mom and family.

The other day we were coming back
from an appointment and it was a long walk back to the train station and I was
praying for someone to talk to when we came around the corner and a cute older
lady asked if we knew which way to the train station. We chatted and she has
seen our temple her multiple times and heard how beautiful the inside was. We
walked all the way back and she called us angels and said thank you and
hopefully she will go to church in her city. cool experiences like that always
reminding me that this is the Lord's work.

Thank you for your love and prayers
:) I love you all, have a great week!